The new indicator was piloted through a random telephone survey of 1,000 people in each of 12 PCTs during summer 2009. It was shown to be effective in differentiating between PCTs in terms of people’s success in being able to get an NHS dental appointment – the success rate for getting an NHS dental appointment in the previous 24 months varied from 86% to 99%. The pilot also showed there was a strong correlation been general public perception of availability of NHS dentistry and actual success rates in people getting appointments - although the perception of availability generally tended to be worse than reality.
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